The Devon home of Harold Macmillans grandson has played host to a prince, a president and a supermodel. Now its on the market  for a cool £5.5m. Roland White pays a visit

There was no doubt about it: the house had most definitely seen better days. Trying to sell its good points had even exhausted the patience of the local estate agent.

“It’s very hard to find,” he had warned, “and it’s in a very bad state of repair.” And when Alexander Macmillan and his second wife, Miranda, first clapped eyes on Hayne Manor in Devon, it was in even worse condition than they had anticipated. “It was falling down,” he recalls. “When we stood in the hallway and looked up we could see sky through the roof.”

Their verdict? Absolutely perfect.

That was 14 years ago, and they paid £139,000 for it. Since then they have had made such extensive changes to the house it is now on the market for more than £5.5m. Kate Moss learnt how to tango here, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the former French president, joined a shooting